India adopts biodiversity bill

Times of India | 12 December 2002

RAJYA SABHA OKAYS BIODIVERSITY BILL

Chandrika Mago

NEW DELHI: Over two years after the Biodiversity Bill was first introduced, and a year after Parliament's standing committee cleared it, it has got the final stamp of approval from both Houses. However, MPs, environmentalists and even officials are not fully satisfied with it.

The Bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday is the first such legislation by any of the 12 megadiverse countries. It seeks to check biopiracy, protect biological diversity and local growers through a three-tier structure of national and state boards and local committees. These will regulate access to plant and animal genetic resources and share the benefits.

The proposed national biodiversity authority (NBA) will deal with all cases of access by foreigners. Its approval will be required before obtaining any intellectual property rights on an invention based on a biological resource from India, or on its traditional knowledge. It may oppose such rights given in other countries.

Benefit-sharing could take various forms, from joint ownership to transfer of technology or a venture capital fund for benefit claimers, monetary or other compensation. The NBA will enjoy the powers of a civil court. In addition, the Centre may issue directives to a state if it feels a naturally-rich area is threatened by "overuse, abuse or neglect".

Concerns among MPs ranged from the "too little-too late" argument to fears of a bureaucratic set-up and queries on the rationale for basing the NBA's headquarters in Chennai.

Among volunteer groups, Gene Campaign's Suman Sahai describes it as a "confused effort to put in elements which have been part of the debate. There are many elements which are at odds with each other and with existing legislation".

Ashish Kothari, who is helping the government draft a national biodiversity strategy, is less caustic.

He believes a number of provisions, used properly, could be useful. "What is very important is to quickly develop rules for the various provisions with public participation, including communities."

Even some environment ministry officials agree that this Bill is "weak in conservation". But there is nothing, they argue, that tight rule-making won't solve. This was the gist of minister Baalu's assurance to the Rajya Sabha -- everything will be taken care of while framing the rules.

Sahai is particularly worried about the effects on research, given the permissions required, and the absence of a definitive stance on intellectual property rights, which may fritter hard-won gains.

She is caustic about the new concept of heritage sites, wondering how this will be different from the existing protected area system of national parks and sanctuaries. There is a probability of overlap with other laws. For instance, the new law permits notification of a threatened species and biodiversity heritage sites.

OneWorld South Asia | 9 December 2002

INDIAN GREENS FLAY BILL FOR PLANT PROTECTION

Kalyani

Environmentalists Monday criticized a proposed Indian law for preserving the country's rich trove of plants, saying that it was aimed more at helping multi-national companies (MNCs) than local communities.

The Biological Diversity Bill, 2000, passed by a section of legislators last week, flouted the UN Convention on Biodiversity which seeks to protect people's rights to and knowledge of plants, the environmentalists said. India was a signatory to the convention which ecological bodies believed had taken shape to protect developing nations' forest resources from MNCs interested in marketing them as medicines and other products.

"But instead of helping the people, this bill will do nothing but add to their miseries," said the chairperson of the Rural Litigation Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), an Indian non-governmental organization (NGO) working on issues such as human rights and environment. "It will take away their rights to the resources that surround them, and give MNCs a free hand," he said.

The bill, which has to be passed by the upper house of the Indian Parliament before it becomes a law, says that people who are not citizens or residents of India and corporate bodies not registered in India cannot "obtain any biological resource occurring in India or knowledge associated thereto for research or for commercial utilization or for bio-survey and bio-utilization."

However, it makes exceptions in certain cases which, the environmentalists feared, would end up giving MNCs free access to the country's plants and herbs. A section of the bill states that the rules restricting access will not be applicable to collaborative research projects provided the Federal government approved of the projects.

"This just means that the Indian government is legalizing bio-piracy," said Vandana Shiva, who heads a non-profit organization called the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. "This clause will let MNCs do what they want with Indian plants as long as the Indian government and the bureaucracy have the final say on whether or not permission is to be granted to MNCs for so-called research," said Shiva.

The bill proposes the formation of a National Biodiversity Authority -- a federal body that would decide on patents. Under the bill, local authorities would decide on people's rights to forest resources and other plants. "But this would deny the people their right to local biological resources," said Kaushal.

Shiva added the common people, who were anyway intimidated by government rules on forestry which denied them access to resources, would not approach government authorities for permission to forage for plants. "The law would end up making criminals out of the common people," said Shiva.

"The law is aimed at stopping a poor woman from collecting fodder for her goat," said Shiva. She pointed out that villagers were being harassed by local forest officials even before the bill was passed by the lower house of Parliament. "Now the authorities are gearing up for more of the same kind of bullying," she said.

Access to plants and forest produce is an important issue in India, where more than three out of every five people live in rural areas and rely heavily on local plants, for both their livelihood and as cattle feed.

Plants are also used in many homes for their medicinal properties. According to Indian government figures, some 8000 species of medicinal plants were in use by local communities in India.

India supplies 12 per cent of the world's requirements of medicinal plants. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said that if "conserved and sustainably utilized, India's rich medicinal plant heritage and an estimated 40,000 herbal formulations, have the potential to contribute to the primary healthcare of millions of Indians."

But the environmentalists feared that the proposed law would end up increasing corruption because government officials often sought bribes from the local people to allow them to forage for forest resources. "Now, the entire system is being placed in the hands of bureaucrats, so we can only expect corruption to increase if the bill turns into a law," said Kaushal.

Shiva said that the impact of the biodiversity bill would be discussed at the forthcoming Asia Social Forum, which would be examining issues related to development and economic liberalization. The Forum will be held in Hyderabad in southern India from January 2 to 7 next year.